Technology has increased at a rapid rate and has changed the lives of people across the globe. In just a short span of human history, we’ve managed to create technology that takes the power of the original IBM supercomputers and houses the equivalent in a little USB stick. Even desktop PC’s that are less than ten years old are now giant, lumbering dragons compared to the super-slim range of Windows Ultrabooks and Apple Macbook Air.

Storage!

Most computers from the 2000-era of home computing were shipped with floppy disk drives, which generally stored around 1.44MB (Megabyte). Just 15 years later, we have USB sticks that can hold up to 1TB (Terabyte) – a capacity that is around one million times bigger than those floppy disks. Even a tiny micro SD card can hold up to 512 Gigabytes. Digital storage advances, but the actual storage devices grow smaller.

The TV Growth

Unlike storage and personal computing, advances in technology are seeing TV’s get bigger as they get better. Unlike storage, which benefits from smaller size, watching TV is improved by a larger screen and better, clearer resolution (which has been achieved thanks to advances in HD and 4K TV). The smaller screened TV’s from the 60’s and 70’s had an average screen size of 17” – meaning families had to sit closer to their device to enjoy it. The average TV screen size in 2015 is set to be 60” – representing just how far we’ve come in trying to replicate the home cinema experience.

Mobile Phones

The mobile phone is an interesting anomaly in the tech world, as originally phones started out huge, grew smaller and are now getting larger again. However, these larger phones are still slim and lightweight – something that can’t be said for the early mobile phone ‘bricks’. A Motorola 8900X-2 from 1994 weighed the same as 9 iPhones!

The Future

The trend of technology to grow lighter, more portable or in some cases, bigger and better, looks set to continue. Already there have been rumours of an iPhone 7 and a Samsung Galaxy S7. Some designs from the past are recycled as ‘retro’ – seen in clothing and in home furniture (The smeg fridge is a popular example, styled after 1950’s devices but for modern homes.)

As data storage and transfer rates get better and as technology makes leaps and bounds forward, we find tech getting either smaller or bigger. It begs the question, ‘Does size really matter?’ – Perhaps it depends entirely on the tech. Check out the infographic by TSG below for more information.